Beryl's Legacy
by CRose
Summary: R/SM Ranma's life goes to hell as he wins is fight with Saffron only to have his victory taken away from him at the last second when Queen Beryl appears.


I originally posted this to the Ranma/Sailor Moon Fanfic Generator a few months ago. I'm placing it here just so more people can get a chance to see that I'm not dead after a 3 month absence. Heh, I'm not sure how much further I'll go with this one, but I figure another three or four chapters at least.  
R/SM Random Fanfic Generator:  
1. Turn on the Radio: BT - Giving Up the Ghost  
2. Ranma is a Sailor Scout! He is Sailor Terra (or author's choice). Ranma can control his curse!  
3. Ranma is fed up with Nerima, moves to Jubaan  
4. Saffron related to Beryl! They are: First Cousins.  
5. Generated the end-to-fiancées...  
6. I'm hungry, so I'll just skip the fiancée's (mentioned in author's notes).  
7. Story takes place in Jubaan, mostly.  
8. Ranma and Ryoga are competing for Sailor Mercury. Ranma wins; Ryoga has a secret relationship with Sailor Moon.   
9. Generated Plot Twist...If not already taken by Ranma, Sailor Venus and has relations with Sailor Venus  
  
**********  
Beryl's Legacy  
Chapter 00  
Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
Blood red eyes opened and stared into the darkness around in confusion, at first she didn't know what was going on, but that didn't last long as memories began to trickle back into her mind almost immediately. Sitting up took a bit of doing, but she eventually managed it and reached out to the side and felt around until she found the handle of her scepter. She instantly felt dark energies coursing through her body, filling it with power and healing old injuries. With the power came memories and understanding as her eyes started to glow even brighter. Clothing formed around her naked body and hugged it like a glove, it was a strapless floor length purple dress. Still the power continued to fill her and her super long red hair started to shift around and wave as if it was being blown by the wind. The Scepter's handle lengthened as the infusion of power finally ended and light began to radiate and fill the cave she was standing in.  
  
Her face was thin and gray, topped with long red hair and a tiara made out of the skull of a long dead enemy and crafted by an artesian of the highest caliber. Set in the center of it was a blood jewel that matched the glow in her eyes as she stood there. She had a thin mouth and noticeable fangs that glinted in the low light being generated by her magic. Looking around she tried to piece together what had awoken her from her sleep, then she felt the magical alarm she had created long ago when she had been someone else and in another age. Even after all this time she marveled that it still worked as it informed her that one of her family members, who should have been long dead, was in mortal danger.  
  
Walking out of the cave she strode down the long passageway as fast as she could, seconds later she opened a door and stepped inside. Instantly torches flared with dark blue energy and filled the small room with blue light. In the center of the room was a small dais with a hole set in the middle, she placed her scepter/staff in the hole and made the black crystal ball on the end flare and pulse with energy. Seconds later, like a bubble of reality the crystal seemed to expand outward to envelope her and the world changed before her eyes. She found herself standing at the top of a mountain looking down at a fight between two very powerful beings, one was a familiar winged man throwing around fire balls and trying to kill his opponent. A young man who looks like he'd seen better days, his shirt was ripped to shreds and in his hands was the Gekkaja.   
  
She hadn't expected this, one of her cousins from an almost forgotten branch of the family was still alive. Who would have thought that Saffron would have had it in him to finally master his powers and become the Phoenix he had always been meant to be. They had never been close, but in those days family was family and it was thicker than all the blood in the world. Very few things would have come between her and her family, even the dark entity Matallia was aware of that and knew better than to interfere where she wasn't wanted or needed. Glancing at Saffron she noticed that he was wielding Gekkaja's opposite, the staff Kinjakan and using it to power his fire balls.  
  
He also wasn't at full power she noted, this man he was fighting must have interrupted the ascension in some way. That was a very dangerous thing to do. She had the power to force the transformation on him if she wanted to, but decided to see where this went. So long as he didn't die she would be happy with the outcome and reveal herself to him. She frowned as the two came together and the man got the better of her cousin and ripped his wings off in mid air and had enough momentum to do a funny kind of kick to the side of Saffron's head a blink of an eye later. It was a magnificent maneuver, but Saffron just regenerated his wings and fired off another fire ball, barely even phased by the attack. The Gekkaja took the brunt of the blast, but the force of the blow sent him hurtling toward the ground. He twisted in mid air to protect something and came up to his feet and slid several feet before coming to a stop, a massive blue aura formed around him as he channeled several blasts of energy through the Gekkaja to throw balls of icy cold energy at Saffron.   
  
Just like the fireballs, these were easily blocked with the Kinjakan and dissipated long before he would have had to worry about them. It was obvious that Saffron still knew how to use the staves while the man did not, he was using it on pure instinct and just barely managing to keep from being killed. She took a close look at the man, more of a boy in his teens really, but possessing an untapped potential that she hadn't seen in sometime. At one time a boy like him would have been trained to be something great, a soldier of power and magic to help protect the kingdom and it's rulers. Now all that potential was going to waste, though a small portion of it had been used to make him physically more powerful than regular humans. That was easy enough to do, even Saffron should have had no problems dealing with the kid now that she thought about it. So why wasn't the guy dead already?  
  
Then she saw it and her eyes lit up with hatred and shock, he possessed a spark, something only a girl was supposed to have. She waved her hand and cast a spell, the world changed around her again and let her see all the magical lines and auras that surrounded her. The boy was covered from head to toe in magic and all of it was one curse after another, she didn't recognize any of them though, but they were protecting him and altering the odds in some way that she couldn't see and it gave him the advantage over Saffron. Her cousin had one thing going for him though, sheer power, he had enough of it to level the whole mountain if he wanted too. So why wasn't he using it? She thought back and frowned, Saffron was quite arrogant and liked to lord it over people, to play with them and use them for his own ends. Pretty typical for her family and one of their weakness, even she had suffered from that little problem from time to time, though she did try to keep it to a minimum. Fear on the other hand worked just as well and allowed her to get things done.  
  
"Saffron, quit playing with him and finish this before you do something stupid..." She muttered.  
She took a closer look at the boy and saw that he was holding something like a living doll in his pocket, using his body to protect it at all costs. It's life force was draining out of it at a pretty steady rate and being sucked up into the battle between the two fighters. Then she understood, Saffron must have used the being somehow and turned it into a doll. Probably female considering the lengths the boy went to protect it, she narrowed her eyes and focused in on the doll and confirmed that it was indeed female. Behind Saffron was one of the Dragon Taps that used the Gekkaja and Kinjakan, the boy needed to get to the water to save the girl, but Saffron needed all of it to ascend into his Phoenix form without powerful magical help. Then she gaped as the boy seemed to get a second wind and launched himself into the battle again, this time he again instinctively used the Gekkaja and Saffron's fire as a weapon to form a tornado like blast of air that slammed her cousin into the ground with enough force to shatter it around his body.  
  
The boy landed and made a run for the water behind Saffron, but didn't make it very far, as several fire balls nearly incinerated him. With a flip, the boy launched himself at Saffron again and redoubled his efforts to defeat the monster. Fire and Ice was the attack of the day as the boy fired off tornado after tornado at Saffron, each one of them was different than the last even when he had to sacrifice something to pull it off. He even went so far as to inflict some of his own attacks on himself to pull them off and every time he did she could see this dark energy with in him would shift and mold around him to give him just a bit more strength for the fight. The life of the girl in his pocket was almost gone by now, less than a minute left before she was totally dead and beyond all but the most powerful help.  
  
She counted down the seconds as she watched the subtle play of magic as it weaved and surged around the area as they fought. Then Saffron lost his temper and charged up a massive amount of power, enough to even melt the stone at his feet and fired it all at the boy. Even she was impressed when the boy didn't even flinch at the amount of power coming at him, in fact he smiled an evil little grin as he held out the Gekkaja, jumped right at the incoming fireball and started to spin the staff as fast as he could and sent the energy right into the fire ball. It was an amazing sight to behold as a monstrous whirlwind of air formed around him like he was the center of a storm. With the blink of an eye the boy had all that energy under his control as it swirled around him and charged it with even more power from the Gekkaja and sent it flying at a stunned Saffron.   
  
The fires were gone, all that was left was the swirling storm of ice as it washed over Saffron and knocked the Kinjakan out of his hands. Saffron fought the ice, but without his full power he couldn't get a handle on it, the storm condensed around him and froze him solid almost instantly. His broken and bleeding body fell out of the air and shattered against the side of the mountain, breaking into millions of tiny little shards. The sound echoed all over the mountain and shocked everyone that had seen it, the impossible had happened, Saffron the King of Phoenix Mountain had been defeated by a child.   
  
Queen Beryl of the Dark Kingdom was not pleased, her cousin had just been defeated right before her eyes. She could feel her fury growing as she stood there and watched the boy looked down upon his fallen foe before he realized something and dove for the ground. Time seems to slow as she realizes that the boy has accidentally dropped the doll while still in the air and he is diving after it. Beryl snarls as she looks at the broken body of Saffron, the last of her family, and begins to draw in the girl's lost life force and the ambient life from all around her and forms a ball of black energy in her hands as it grows.   
  
"No one hurts one of my family and gets away with it." She snarls.  
  
The boy catches the doll and from mid air throws the Gekkaja into it's slot on the top of the Dragon tap's head. Another boy she hadn't noticed comes out of nowhere and twists the Gekkaja and the waters begin to flow out in a wave that shoots a fountain of water right at the boy and the dieing girl. They burst out of the other side and the girl is back to full size and laying in the boys arms as he lands beside the water. Beryl fires her beam the instant they land and it streaks out as a pure black beam that flashes across the mountain. The boy doesn't react at first, but at the last second he turns his head and sees the beam coming at him with shock, it slams into his back as he moves to protect the girl. He screams as it bores through his body and barely misses the girl who looks shocked out of her mind.  
  
Queen Beryl appears beside the fallen boy and picks the girl up by her neck and holds her there. "You know you did all that for nothing, right?"  
  
"Akan...e..." The boy gasps out and Beryl kicks him in the stomach as she vanishes.  
She points over to Saffron's body just as it flares with fire and an egg forms, one of the winged spectators runs up and grabs it before anything else can happen. Beryl recognizes her as one of Saffron's commanders and doesn't kill her, she smirks down at the dieing boy and vanishes in a burst of black fire and an evil laugh. After that everything goes to hell as several people converge in on the boy to help and blame him for failing, but by this time he's unconscious and it's unknown if he will live or not. They make a beeline out of the area with several of the winged people firing arrows at them from overhead.  
  
**********  
  
Queen Beryl steps out of the cave with her staff in hand once again and following along behind her is a crystal case of some kind. Akane is inside it struggling to get out, but the black energy covering it just won't give as she pushes as hard as she could. She's still weak from nearly dieing, but remembers what Ranma did for her and look in his eyes as they gazed at each in that final second. He had killed for her and she wanted to do everything in her power to save him, to l...like him, but this witch had interfered and now that was impossible. Ranma had succeeded and failed all in that last minute. She looked up at the back of the red haired woman that had killed Ranma right before her eyes and swore she would make her pay.  
  
"Why are you doing this?! Ranma never did anything to hurt you, he was just fighting that guy to keep me alive."  
  
"You really don't know do you?" Beryl said as she looked down at the girl.  
  
"What are you talking about?!"  
  
"Saffron was a part of my family, once a generation we have the option to increase our powers a hundred fold and take our place as one of the ruling families of a planet. Unfortunately we have to do this by sacrificing someone's life and adding it to our own and finding that person is usually impossible. Only in the most special of circumstances will we find the life we need, you my dear are one of the rare ones, there isn't a person on this entire planet that can give me what you can and I plan to use you just as Saffron would have."  
  
Akane paled as she remembered what Saffron had tried to do to her. "I won't let you do that!"  
  
"You have no choice in the matter. You are already captured, all I have to do is install that case in the proper place and I can raise to my full power and there isn't a thing you can do about it." Beryl said with an evil grin.  
  
"I escaped from Saffron's egg, I can escape again you old bitch and even if I don't Ranma will save me!" Akane yelled, then flinched when she reminded herself that he was dead. He wouldn't be coming for her and whispered to her self. "No..."  
  
"Struggle all you want because in about half an hour you aren't even going to care about Ranma or anyone else." Beryl said and laughed cruelly.  
  
A few minutes later they approached a large door, it was about fifteen foot high and when the staff was waved in front of them the door opened with an ominous creak of evil. Akane prayed for some way to escape, but she had to get out of this coffin like case first and there was no way to get through the energy. No matter how much she pushed against it or punched it the thing wouldn't budge an inch. The inside of the room was pitch black, but as they walked through the gloom blue fire torches started to light up all around them to illuminate a large hollowed out cavern that stretched for hundreds of feet in every direction. The torches traveled in a half circle as they lit up and stopped when two torches on either side of a large stone throne lit up.  
  
Akane shivered, the throne looked like it had been carved from a nightmare, it was a giant   
demonic mouth with long teeth sprouting out in every angle from it's lips. The tongue, a forked piece of red stone with the ends of the split tongue rolled up for a person to place their feet with the rest shaped into a chair with sparkling cushions. Beryl motioned with her hand Akane felt the coffin, as she thought of it, move forward and slowly stand up and lift into the air, she yelled, but couldn't do anything to stop the thing from landing on top of the statue and slotting right into a hole at the back of the throne. There was a hole right in front of her with a glass like substance covering it and she could see the woman moving about doing something. Placing the staff in a slot between the forked tongue it shortened back down into a scepter as Beryl sat down and sighed.   
  
The black crystal ball glowed as she watched and a field of energy formed around her to cover the throne completely. She grinned and thought thanking her cousin when he was old enough to talk again. His loss was her gain and one she needed badly, now that she was thinking clearly for the first time in a long time she had to make sure this counted for something. She waved her hand at the crystal ball and cast the start spell, a wave of energy surged from the ball and filled the small enclosed bubble of space. Beryl could hear the girl screaming from where she was being held, it was time for her to ascend t the next level and there was nothing to stop her now. The power was filling her body and she laughed insanely as the egg shell formed and the throne room went silent and filled with blue flame that would last for days.  
  
**********  
  
Dressed in a black suit and a dark trench coat, Ranma stood in front of a small shrine that Mr. Tendo had set up in the dojo just that morning along side his wife's shrine. The Tendo's hadn't taken the loss of Akane very well, like everybody in his life no one seemed to understand that there hadn't been a thing he could do to prevent it. Ryoga blamed him for losing her, Shampoo got it into her head that he'd let her be taken to clear the way for her to take Akane's place, and he blamed himself for letting it happen at all. Who would have thought that after everything he'd just been through that someone would come out of nowhere and just take Akane like that? He was supposed to be the best, was the best martial artist of this generation, and he hadn't expected it at all. Whatever that energy attack had been he hadn't been able to block it at all.   
  
That more than anything else surprised him, Ki could be blocked and absorbed quite easily. All it took was a bit of thought and a good idea how much a person might be able to use.  
He lifted his hand up and focused a little to form a small ball of reddish yellow Ki, it was only because of this energy that he was even alive to fight back against this crap too. That woman's attack had nearly killed him where Saffron, a self proclaimed god had failed and he didn't even know why. When they had returned from China Soun had found out about Akane and refused to even talk to him until he went and got his daughter back and kicked him out of the house accompanied with his pack and a giant house sized Demon Head attack screaming 'GEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUTTTTTT!! It had been just another attack in a long series of attacks that had happened lately. No one wanted to listen to him, his father had threatened to disown him for failing to win, his mother had looked at him with disappointment as she fingered her damned katana. Ryoga had been so angry, even though he had witnessed the sneak attack, that he had nearly killed him with that belt of his in an attempt to behead him.   
  
There were times when he found it just a little hard to care about certain people, and those four were at the top of the list. Two fucking years of this crap and they expected him to take care of everything on his own. Forget the part that he would have to dishonor dozens of families and sacrifice his own honor to set things right. No one cared about that, he was a pawn for everyone, to be used and discarded at a whim. He sighed quietly and wondered where his life had gone wrong. He was only one person, there had to be a way to reduce the pain and suffering he had to go through on a daily basis. What hurt even worse was the look that Kasumi had given him when he told the family of Akane's second kidnapping. There had been someone there behind those eyes that Ranma had never seen before, perhaps the real Kasumi and not the robot that wandered around the Tendo home all hours of the day. He just didn't know and that look had been like a blow to his soul, as if he had betrayed some kind of trust he didn't know he had.  
  
Even now, two weeks after it happened Ranma could barely move, his body had a hole through it and had suffered massive amounts of damage just fighting Saffron, that woman had just added to the damage and nearly killed him. The strangest thing was that no one cared, it was all his fault and there was no other excuse. Everyone told him so, usually while screaming at him or with a withering glare that hurt even more. He had to use a cane to walk around at the moment to relieve some of the weight on his legs even when they were filled with Ki to help give enough support to stand, other wise he would have been in a wheel chair. Though the healers at the Amazon village had fixed him up as best they could, any normal person would have died, but not him, he would no allow it until Akane was safe once again. He flinched a little as he suddenly sensed a presence heading for the dojo, there were no lights on since he'd snuck in here during the middle of the night so he figured the little Ki ball he had created must have been seen. He used the Umisen-ken to vanish into thin air and took the extra precaution of moving to the darkest corner of the dojo to wait out whoever was coming here at two in the morning.  
There was no sound made as the door opened and a girl entered the room and Ranma realized it was Nabiki. He didn't understand why she was here so late at night, she went to bed and slept the sleep of the dead, a bomb couldn't wake her up in the mornings. She turned on the lights and lit the whole room up and glared around as if she was looking for him. He wondered if there was some way she could have known he was here. "Saotome, drop the cloak of invisibility, I want to talk to you." She snapped.  
  
It was time to leave, she knew he was here, that must mean she'd had time to replace all the camera's and microphones she hid around the house and dojo to get the best pics to sell at school. He cursed himself for a fool and wondered for a brief second if everyone was right about him, it wasn't like him to make a mistake like that, he always made sure to be careful when it really counted. Nabiki sighed and for just a brief second looked like she was totally lost and alone, that was the only reason Ranma didn't leave right then and there. He had never seen a Nabiki like this before, she was always confident and sneaky, that guy she had used to date was a great example of her guile at times. Her pride came in a close second, once it was bruised or cut she could be as hard to handle as the old ghoul and twice as dangerous.  
  
"Ranma...please, I know you're here still, I just want to talk to you."   
  
"...why?" He asked without dropping the cloak. It seemed as if the very air had answered her, but Nabiki knew better.  
  
Nabiki sighed. "What happened in China Ranma?"  
  
"Why should I answer now, I tried for hours to tell everyone what happened while we were there and no one would listen. Why should that change now?" Ranma asked bitterly, he had learned a very hard lesson because of this, he didn't trust anyone anymore, they would just betray him like everyone else did.  
  
"I'll listen."   
  
"No you wont, I know all of you, even when I tell you something it'll just be twisted around to ruin my life even more. I've taken enough abuse from all of you, because of what your father did I could just walk away and never return, it isn't like anyone would care."  
  
"You aren't like that Ranma."   
  
"I learned a hard lesson because of this, I learned who my friends are and who I can't trust. I never realized that there wasn't a person in this town that I couldn't call my friend, did you known that?" Ranma snapped and let a bit of the pain enter his voice. "Not one damned person, all of you turned on me, even Kasumi, and IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!"  
  
By the time the echo from the shout was gone so was Ranma, he couldn't currently roof hop, so he had done a quick waddle off the property and made his way down the street. He could keep up the cloak for about two hours with no problem, the situation had given him ample time to perfect certain moves to keep people from taking their revenge on him. The so called Sealed Techniques had seen a lot of use in recent days and he had ideas about improving them already. His old man may have come up with them, but since he didn't feel like breaking into someone's house they needed to be put to a different use. Anime was a wonderful thing, so many ideas that could be used, all they needed was to be put into a real world frame of mind and he could actually copy some of them.  
  
Still invisible, Ranma made his way across Nerima and into the forest outside the city. He didn't have a home anymore, no one he could turn to for help and everybody he might have turned to for help just wanted to use him. He would have to do this alone, if Ryoga and the others hadn't dragged him away from the Amazon village in the middle of the night he would still be over in China searching for Akane. Instead they had brought him home to make sure everyone knew of his failure, he needed to heal and figured that another week or so would be enough for his Ki to fix him up enough to start practicing again. After that he had a lot of work ahead of him to get caught up, but he would track Akane down even if it took him another decade in hell.   
  
Lightning flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled in the distance, but Ranma ignored it. He had set his camp site up a little differently than he normally did. He had his tent set up under a large branch sticking out of the side of a tree with a tarp draped over it to keep the rain off his camp site. It wasn't long before the rain started, the bane of his life, but the tarp was working perfectly. He couldn't move around to much, but he didn't need to, the tent was nearby and since his fire was just a small one he didn't need to worry about it melting the tarp. He still had a couple of hours yet before he would go to sleep, he was sleeping during the day now, so he spent his time cooking dinner in an old pot from his pack and thinking about his techniques.   
  
How to improve them and get the most use with the absolute minimum amount of movement. With Ryoga on dead set on killing him now he didn't have a regular sparing partner, that meant he would have to find a way to keep his edge until he rescued Akane.  
  
Snap!  
  
Looking around suddenly, Ranma tries to see what that sound was, but it had been way to loud to be a simple stick snapping. It had been closer to the sound a tree makes when it snaps at the base and falls over. The strange thing was that he hadn't heard anything fall over, just the sound of a large piece of wood breaking. He stood up and edged closer to the edge of the tarp and looked out into the darkness of the trees. It wasn't windy enough to blow over trees and the rain was just coming down in it's usual on and off again heavy pour like it did every few days.   
  
Creak! Snap!  
  
That one had sounded even closer than the last one, Ranma tried the other side of the camp and looked out into the darkness again. He still couldn't see anything weird, but he knew it was close. Over time he had developed a sense for things, chaos and insanity followed him around like a couple of dogs and wouldn't go away. There was always something a little odd going on, even quiet days when nothing dangerous happened, there would be a weird occurrence or two. Tsubasa would show up to pester him instead of Ukyo, or Kuno would compose a new poem to the pig tailed girl and Akane and stand out in front of the Tendo's front gate quoting it, at the top of his lungs, to all that would hear him out. Even though he was using words so old and out of use that it had most people reaching for their dictionaries to figure out what he was talking about. Someone usually ended up slapping him.  
  
He expected more sounds after he sat down again, but they never came, so he relaxed and used the extra time to play with his Ki. Of all his abilities his Ki had to be the most useful, it had taken him years to perfect it's use and even now when he had so many Ki techniques to draw upon he wasn't as good as he wanted to be. This is what he'd been doing for a few hours a night for the last several days, pushing himself beyond his limits and trying to come up with Ki attacks that could be used for multiple reasons. Hell some of them couldn't even be called 'attacks' really, they were more like different ways to access his Ki or pull it out of the environment and use it like they had suggested in some Street Fighter games. He would have to call them different names of course, but with his school that was kind of normal.   
  
Crack!!  
  
"What the hell?!" Ranma yelled as the ground beneath him suddenly shifted and he fell over, almost landing in the fire. Then the last thing he expected happened, the ground he was laying on, the solid ground that should have the perfect camping spot for a day or two, fell out from below him. He had about a split second to realize that there was a gaping hole below him, so deep that he couldn't see the bottom, before he found himself hanging off the edge of the pit by one hand. He sighed, carefully and shook his head. "The Kami hate me, I just know it, no one else has the kind of life I do."  
  
If he hadn't been so injured he would have just dropped, it couldn't have been more than fifty feet or so, and easy drop for him. Unfortunately he couldn't even jump right now and landing correctly was out of the question, he didn't have much choice though, as a few seconds later the small bit of grass and root he was hanging from gave out and he dropped into the pit below him. There was an almost instant landing and he came down hard, instinctively rolling to break the fall a bit and reduce added injuries. He groaned and rolled onto this back, that had hurt, a lot, but he couldn't feel any new injuries so the fall couldn't have been all that deep. That didn't mean that he hadn't aggravated any old injures, the hole that red haired bitch had shot through him was starting to bleed again, he could feel the blood seeping through the bandage and running down his stomach and down his side onto the floor.  
  
He opened his eyes, but it was pitch black as far as he could tell, except for a small bit of darkness above him that looked a bit different than the blackness around him. Gritting his teeth he forced his body to work and took a couple of minutes to stand up. He was clutching his side and wondered what he would do now. The smell of smoke told him that the small fire he'd lit was also down here, but it had gone out instead of starting a fire. For a second he almost thought the fire would be a better idea, at least then he would be able to see what was going on. There was the creak of wood nearby, it almost sounded as if was a house settling under it's own weight.   
  
"I need some light down here, it looks like I'm going to have to wait until the sun comes up." Ranma muttered to himself. At least the tarp above him was still in place, it was keeping the water from pouring down the hole and on his head. Then he recalled something and reached into stuff space to pull out the Kinjakan, raised it above his head, and made it's tip burst into flame. He'd managed to grab it and the Gekkaja while Kima and the rest of the Phoenix had run off with the baby Saffron after the battle. This had been before Ryoga really started to lay into him, that had happened on the boat ride home. The weapon lit up the room he was in, that was the first surprise since he had thought he was in a cave or sink hole of some kind. The room was about the width and length of his room at the Tendo place, but that was about the only thing they had in common.   
  
The walls were all made out of polished wood of some kind, it rose up about fifteen feet high. He could just make out hole in the roof, some of the beams had snapped in half over time. They looked rotted through, a closer examination showed that the place was infested with terminates. It had to have taken years to get the place into this kind of condition, it was falling down even as he looked at it. Those broken beams up above must have been under some serious pressure to have snapped at all. There was a door nearby so he moved over to look at it. At one time it had been painted white and there had been a large golden crescent moon near the top, but over the years the termites and time had worn things away. It could still be seen, but only under the torch light when he brought it a little closer. There was a latch like handle, when he tried it there was a click, but the door resisted opening even when he put a bit of pressure to it.   
  
Crack!  
  
The latch ripped out of the termite ridden door and came off in his hand as he stumbled back in shock. With a growl he reared back and kicked the door, not really a good idea under the circumstances. One hit and his foot went through the door, it stayed in place, his foot went through and he lost is balance and fell against it. This was all it needed to finally give out and it ripped off it's hinges and dropped him into the hallway out side the room with a loud crash. The door disintegrated round him though and prevented him from taking more than a couple of scratches. He'd dropped the Kinjakan, but the fire had gone out the instant it left his hand and plunged everything into darkness again. He sighed loudly and groped around in the dark for the Kinjakan for a few minutes, it lit up the instant he touched it and let him see again.  
  
There wasn't' much left of the door, but he didn't care about that right now. He wanted to find out where he was and if there was someway out of here so he looked down the hall and saw that there was only one way to go and it led to another door, this one was in a little better shape than the last one and the wood rot wasn't as prominent as the first room. There was dust everywhere, but for the most part this section seemed to be a little more isolated and not as prone to damage. The floors were still smooth and well kept under the years of dust and the lack of foot prints told him that no one had been down here in some time. As he moved down the short hallway he noticed for the first time that there were spots on the walls where paintings had once stood, but they were all rotted away in their frames. Several of them all had pure gold frames, when one travels with Genma Saotome, they learn what gold is very quick. Though they never held onto any of the stuff they stumbled across over they years, it usually went right to the local pawn shop and then they were off to the local bar/pub/ for a few hours fun.   
  
He nearly pulled them down, but decided that he would come back for them some other time. Right now he had other more important things to worry about, so he made his way down to the second door. This one was the same as the first except that the colors stood out more and it wasn't rotting in it's frame. This time the latch clicked normally and swung inward to reveal a circular room of some kind. He had never seen anything like it before, it was about twenty foot by twenty foot circular with a large metal plate of some kind set into the floor in the center of the room. It was about five feet across etched to look like a circle with cut into four parts. The plate itself stood about three inches off the floor and had to weigh several hundred pounds at least.   
The rooms walls were even curved and he was amazed at how much of a smooth curve the builders had gotten out of the wood and to have it last this long without falling down had to mean some amazing workmanship. There were more pictures here, these were in better condition than the others, he wandered over to them and saw a regal looking woman with long silver hair and a great body sitting on a throne looking stern and commanding. The whole effect was ruined by the mini childlike version of her with blonde heir peaking out from behind the throne sucking on her thumb. They both had crescent moons on their foreheads and the painter had given the impression that they were glowing. There was a name plate etched with some words at the bottom of the picture, but he didn't recognize the language.   
  
He moved onto the next painting and held the Kinjakan up to get a better look, this one was a bit more faded than the other two. It showed a woman with long brown hair in a ponytail wearing a kind of hentai version of a girls school uniform. She had a golden thing around her forehead with a bit of it sticking up above her head like and antenna, it was being struck by lightning and she seemed to be gathering this into her hands to form a ball. Her eyes had a cruel glint to her eyes. Then he noticed all the monsters gathering around her, he'd never seen anything like them before in his life. They seemed to be deformed animals with long deadly looking claws and old leather type armor for protection. Several of them were being electrocuted in the back ground and even more of them had been killed already. The girl was standing on a pile of dead bodies as she fought.  
  
The next picture was a bit different, it showed a young girl in her teens dressed like the one before, except in purple. In the center of her breast bow was a large spiky looking crystal. This picture was a split look, as if showing two sides of the girl at once, on one side was a peaceful looking girl that kept to herself among a crowd, at least that is what the picture seemed to mean. On the other side was a vision out of hell itself, it showed the girl in the process of slicing and dicing demons by twirling a wicked looking pole arm around her body in a spray of black blood. The artist had gotten her icy cold eyes down perfectly in all three versions of her and added just a hint of loneliness. He was a bit surprised that he could read that much into the painting, but it was that good, it had to have been done by a master.  
  
Shuddering a little he moved onto the next one, it was of six men in the midst of combat. They were all using magical blades of some kind as they fought and wadded through blood and gore almost an ankle deep. The one that stood out was a large bear of a man that looked like evil given human form as he crushed demons with his bare blood covered hands. The next one he noticed was a young man just to the side as he beheaded a demon, beside him was a man with long white hair tied back in a ponytail splitting a demon down the middle in a spray of gore and from the looks of the guy it wasn't the first time he had done this. Hovering in the air above them were two guys, the first one had short blonde hair and was throwing bolts of energy hundreds of feet to kill the demons at a distance, he was smiling as if he enjoyed his job a little to much. Beside him was a man with long brown hair holding what looked to be glowing balls of energy in his hands with symbols spinning inside them as they fired off blasts of energy. This guy had no expression at all, as if he was doing his job and didn't want to be there, it could be seen in his eyes. The final one stood beside the one with long blonde hair, this guy could have passed for a girl if he was put in the right clothes, and seemed to be protecting everyone's back while they battled. The carnage around them showed soldiers killing and being killed in equal number as the sky around them was darkening into twilight. Ranma had never seen anything like it before, it showed details that only someone that had been there would have known about.  
  
Shaking his head he moved on to the other pictures, he wanted to check all of them out now. He had only planned to check out one or two, but now they had caught his attention and the next one beckoned silently. He stepped over and saw that it was pretty girl in a red robe of some kind. She had dark eyes that seemed to look right through him and into his soul, she was sitting in front of a huge fire that had to bigger than some bonfires he'd encountered over the years. She was obviously outside, but she sky was a dark shade of red and had red clouds high above her. Her hair was being whipped back and forth by the fire as it raged behind her and in the fire itself was this same girl, but she was wearing one of those school uniforms with the short skirts and high heels. She looked like she was seriously pissed off, her hair seemed to blend right into the fire making it hard to tell where the black ended and fire started.  
  
Other than that first one everyone of these pictures showed a warrior, no matter how they were dressed. The next picture showed two more of the sailor clad girls, one in yellow and another in blue. The one in yellow had blonde hair clear down to her knees and it almost seemed to glow, there was a glowing chain of hearts in her hands that she was brandishing like a weapon. The one in blue had bluish black hair and a glowing blue visor across her eyes with more of those symbols he couldn't read. She had her hand raised up and had formed an ice sculpture of the one in yellow. There was a bit of bluish energy sparking from her fingertips to the sculpture. They were standing back to back, unlike the other pictures they were holding hands and looking off to the side as the wind blew their skirts to the side for a tiny little panty shot. They looked happy to be there, but it was impossible to figure out what they were looking at.   
  
Shaking his head he moved to the next one and saw that this one was in worst shape of all of them so far. It was ratty around the edges and starting to darken from age, but there was enough left to see that it showed a tall regal looking woman standing before a stone door that towered above her. Details were hard to make out, but she seemed to have dark skin, red eyes, and long green hair. She was holding a strange looking staff with a large metal thing at the top with a large red jewel set into the top that glowed a deep red and set off strange shadows along the woman's face. There seemed to be something about her that made him want to stay away from her and hope he never came into contact with her. From the age of the painting he figured she had to be really old or dead by now so he shrugged it off and went to the last one of the set.  
  
One look was enough to make Ranma blush, it was a picture of two girls kissing passionately. One was a tall blonde wearing a light blue dress that was hanging off one shoulder and all the way to the floor. The girls she was kissing had shoulder length deep green hair with a light green dress that left her shoulders bare and accentuated her body's curves in a very suggestive way. Ranma wasn't about to think about where the girls hands were, like the others this one didn't leave much to the imaginations and it had to have been painted by a master. Taking a quick look around showed that he had circled the room looking at the paintings. He moved back over to the metal thing on the floor and wondered if there was something underneath it. There were no doors in the room other than the one he'd entered through, so this was either the end or there had to be something below the floor. No one would build a set of rooms like this under the ground with no way to enter them from the outside.   
  
He checked his side again and noticed that it had stopped bleeding so he sent a bit of Ki to the wound, it hurt like hell, but he could feel certain thing knitting inside him. Now if they only held, this was the third time he'd reopened the wound in the last week. Over the years he had grown used to ignoring pain, no matter how bad, so this was just another inconvenience to him. His shirt was ruined, but he didn't care, he had to find a way out of this place as quickly as he could. There were some bandages in his pack and that was beside his tent up above. He walked around the metal plate and couldn't find anything that said might be a hinge or seam in the metal. Growling in frustration he stepped up on the the thing and stomped down to see if he could hear a hollow sound. Instead he got something else, there was a deep rumble that made him think he shouldn't have kicked the thing. The sound grew as the seconds passed and he moved to get off the plate, but the outer edges started to glow as an instant later a wall of light shot up to the ceiling and surrounded him.   
  
The wall of light was solid as steel and no matter how hard he pushed the stuff just wouldn't give. Then he felt a lurching sensation and for just a second he could feel himself floating in nothingness, then gravity seemed to reassert itself and he collapsed to his knees. A wave of dizziness washed over him and he hurled all over the floor just before he passed out from shock. He had a few seconds to take in his location as he lay there and he could tell that he wasn't in that wooden room anymore. The floor was made out of some kind of ceramic tile and gleamed brightly. He heard some movement off to his right just as everything went black and he fell over.  
  
**********  
  
When Ranma awoke he found himself about to drown in some kind really soft western type bed. He felt like he was about to sink through and fall on the floor and rolling over was a pain in the ass, but he managed it. Climbing to his feet he noticed that someone had cleaned him up and changed his bandages for him. He was also naked, this gave him a chance to check his wounds and to his surprise they had been stitched and sealed up. A quick stretch showed that he was in a lot better shape than he had been when he passed out, but who in the world had fixed him and healed him a little. Tofu had told him that his talents were limited with these kinds of wounds and had sent him to the emergency room.  
  
Grabbing one of the sheets he folded it up a bit and wrapped it around his waist just as the door opened. What stepped through was a bit unexpected, it wasn't human, he could tell that almost instantly. It seemed to be a female by the way it was shaped and walked, but the bald head and marble looking white skin gave it away. Her eyes looked him over as she drew a little closer, then she stopped and kneeled at his feet. Ranma gaped and stepped back a few steps before stopping himself. He was getting tired of being surprised every five seconds and almost started to yell at the girl, but he held his tongue.   
  
"Hey, you don't have to do that." Ranma said.  
  
She stood up and Ranma finally noticed that she was naked, or at least chiseled naked. Like one of those statues that the Romans had created, he'd seen a few here and there on the Trip.   
"You are speaking Japanese?" He was a bit relieved that her voice sounded normal enough, kind of like his mom did when she was having a pleasant talk with the old man.  
Now he was confused. "Huh, of course I'm speaking Japanese? What else would I speak in Japan?"  
  
She blinked. "You don't know what happened to you do you?"  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"You are no longer on Earth as you know it."  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"You are no longer on Earth as you know it." She repeated in the same mellow tone of voice, though this time she cocked her head to the side.  
  
"T-then where am I?"   
"This is the Castle Terra, you are the first human to enter these walls in over ten thousand years."  
  
Ranma gaped and mouthed ten thousand years. "H-how did I g-get here?"  
  
"You seem to have activated one of the still working special rifts that allow travel from the Earth to this castle. They were hidden away many centuries ago to keep them from humanity when they fell back into primitive savages once more."  
  
Blink, blink.  
  
"You do not understand do you?" She asked patiently.  
  
"Sorry." Ranma mumbled and looked away.   
  
"I will explain things differently then, follow me, we can get you some clothing while I try to do this." She said and opened the door to show him the way out.  
They moved out into a hallway and Ranma was amazed to see that it went on for hundreds of feet. The floors shined as if a professional crew of waxers had spent several months on each tile, making them gleam from the over head lighting. That was where everything got a bit weird, the light could be seen, but the things that produced the light were not as obvious. He ignored for now though, he had other things to worry about right now. Like why this girl wasn't smacking him for seeing her naked. They eventually reached the end of the long hallway and the girl opened the door to a wardrobe. Ranma followed her in and saw that there was every manner of clothing he'd ever seen.  
  
Do you know what size clothing you wear?"  
  
"Of course."   
  
"Then pick something out from this room, you may keep whatever you want since most of this never gets used."  
  
"Alright, this is just what I needed." Ranma said as he started digging through all the clothing. Most of it seemed to be American type clothing, jeans, t-shirts, briefs in dozens of different styles. Eventually he made his way deep into the back of the wardrobe, about twenty feet in with very little room to move around when he found the perfect outfit. It was a bit dark for his tastes, but it would do until he got home. A pair of his normal black baggy pants with the bottom of the legs that tied around his ankles, white silk boxers, a red sash, and a black Chinese top with a yellow and gold flower pattern that went over the left shoulder. It was a little tight though, but nothing he wasn't used to and if he changed sexes it would be easy to tighten the sash and keep his pants up.  
  
Now all he needed was shoes. "Where can I find some shoes?"  
  
"Foot wear?" The odd girl called back.  
  
"Um...yeah, foot wear."   
  
"We keep them in another room, are you done here?"  
  
"Yeah, let me grab some shoes and we can be on our way."  
  
"Alright, follow me."   
  
"Are you going to get anything to wear?"   
  
The girl stopped and gave him a confused look. "I don't understand? Why would I need clothing?"  
  
"You look a little different, but you are still running around naked and all. I thought you might want to get yourself covered up. I am a guy after all."   
  
"I don't wear clothing, it would just go to waste anyway." She said.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Do you not know what I am? I thought it was obvious even to those of your world today." She said, her voice still pleasant but still monotone, as if she didn't have any emotions at all.  
  
"Your skin seems to be made out of stone, but I don't see the problem, did I miss something that I should know about?"  
  
"I am a Golem." She stated and blinked.  
  
"Okay, but what is a golem?"  
  
"I am a magically created device, my only purpose is to serve my creators until I am destroyed. My kind run the castle and make sure everything works correctly."  
  
"That doesn't sound like a lot of fun, more like a slave actually." Ranma mumbled.  
  
"We do not think along those lines, we have free run to do our duties within the castle. If we were to leave we would shut down after a few days."  
  
Ranma narrowed his eyes. "I see. What is your name? Mine is Ranma Saotome if you want to call me by name."  
  
"You may call me Terax, I am the castle host and guard."  
  
"It's nice to meet you Terax. So where are we going?"  
  
"We are here." Terax said softly and gestured to a door that opened on it's own.   
Inside were thousand upon thousands of shoes from all across the centuries, he wandered in and tried to find something that would be easy to fight in. He had a pair of his normal shoes in his pack so he didn't need another pair, so after about twenty minutes he saw a pair of black running shoes and put them on. He had a pair of these once years ago, but his training had destroyed them within a month on the road and he'd never gotten another pair. They were brand new and gave him a bounce to his step that he normally didn't have, but there was some good traction and the extra inch of height would give him an advantage in a fight if he got into one and that was only a matter of time.  
  
"So what now?" Ranma asked as he left the room.  
  
"The Master would like to talk to you, please follow me." Terax said and headed down a nearby passageway he hadn't noticed earlier. In fact he was positive it hadn't been there earlier, where in the world had it come from?  
  
"Alright."  
Terax led him to a large door and it opened as they approached, the inside turned out to be a throne room. It was about thirty foot wide by forty foot long by fifteen foot high. He looked around and saw that the place had a high tech feel to it and then a light flashed on over head and a ghost like girl in an expensive looking dress appeared on the throne. She flickered like a bad TV set for several seconds before she looked at him and stood up. The flickering stopped and she seemed to get a bit more clear even though he could still see right through her.  
  
"Hello Ranma Saotome, my name is Terra1."  
  
"Um...Hi?"  
  
"I am a hologram, I represent the computer that runs this castle."  
  
"Right." When in doubt, stall for more information.  
  
"You are the first human we have had here in a very long time and I would like to secure your help."  
  
"What kind of help, because my fiance was kidnapped about two weeks ago and I was trying to get healed up and find her when I stumbled upon this place by accident."  
  
"I did not know you were on a quest to find your love." Terra1 said with a smile. "It is nice to know that humans are still the same after all these years. If you help us I'll help you, though I can't guarantee anything."  
  
"What kind of help do you need?"  
  
"That is kind of complicated to explain. How much do you know about magic?"  
  
"A little, but most of it is bad." Ranma muttered and thought about his curse.  
  
"Well one of the reasons you ended up here at the castle was because you have magic intermixed in your aura. A normal human would not have been able to activate the gate that brought you here, but there was a side effect..."  
  
"Oh great!" Ranma snapped. "Now what, am I going to die or turn into some kind of monster?!"  
  
"Well! If you will let me finish I will tell you." Terra1 snapped with a huff.  
  
"Alright, what is it now?"  
"The gate used the magic in your aura to send you here, when it did this it altered your aura. The Gate hadn't been serviced in a very long time and it used to much energy, flooding your body with wild magic. When you appeared here you were not in very good shape at all and we had to take care of you. That was when we found out that you had been bound to this castle's magic reserves by accident."  
  
"Huh?" Ranma muttered.   
  
Terra1 sighed. "You are not fully human anymore Ranma, you have gained a new kind of power that you need to be trained in. To be blunt, the instant this happened you became the lord of this castle. Everything here is yours to use as you wish until the day you die in a few thousand years."  
  
"Um right, all of it's mine...die in a few thousand...YEARS?" Ranma screamed.  
  
"Yes, a few thousand years. The magic has effectively made you a very long lived human, just like the residents of this castle were long before this castle existed."  
  
"But...but...but..." Ranma muttered.  
  
"I know this comes as a bit of a shock, but there are some benefits to the position as Lord of Castle Terra."  
  
"What was the favor you wanted to ask?" Ranma stammered out.  
  
"That was it, every castle needs a Lord and we haven't had one in millennia. Please, you will be able to use the castle's recourses to find your love. Use the Library to learn about things you have never even thought of, everything can be...is yours, all you have to do is accept." Terra1 said, she sounded like a reality agent on the prowl.  
  
"I...have to sit down, this is to much to believe in one go."  
  
"Please use the throne, it is yours after all."  
  
Ranma stumbled over to the throne and sat down with a sigh, it wasn't very comfortable, but at the moment he didn't care. "Are there any other bombshells you want to drop on me?" Ranma muttered.  
  
"Well maybe a little one?" Terra1 said with a cheeky grin and seemed to blush a little.  
  
"Now what?"  
  
"Um...well the Sailor Scouts have been operating out of Jubaan for several years now..." Terra1 started.  
  
"The who?"   
  
"The Sailor Scouts, they fight monsters and fight for love and peace." She tried.  
  
"I've never heard of them, but I assume you brought them up for a reason?"  
  
Terra1 nodded happily, the Lord was starting to act like he was supposed to. "Several years ago when they first appeared they had to fight an old enemy of their kingdom that this castle belongs to. They won at a high price, with all of them being killed, we were able to monitor the battle, but unable to interfere due to...um, various reasons. They defeated a woman named Queen Beryl, a very bad person and evil to the core."  
  
"So what? They sound like they did a good job for a bunch of girls." Ranma said and winced a half second later as his words caught up with his ears.  
  
Terra1 glared at him.   
  
"Sorry, they won. So what does that have to do with me?"  
  
"Sailor Moon, the leader of the Scouts has a boyfriend that goes by the name Tuxedo Mask, his real title is Prince Endymoin and is supposed to be Lord of this castle with his wife. If he marries Sailor Moon then he will lose that title and become King of the Earth."  
  
"Okay, when you were altered by the castle, you gained all of Prince Endymoin's powers that have been waiting in this castle for untold ages for him to claim."  
  
"What kind of powers?!" Ranma snapped, this was getting old quick.  
  
"You are now Lord of the Earth, as such you have the power to Teleport, create roses, alter your clothing at will, increased speed, strength, and all the power this castle had to offer."  
  
"What does this have to do with this Beryl chick?"  
  
Terra1's eye twitched a little, no one in their right mind ever called Queen Beryl a chick and lived to tell the tale. "She recently found a way to resurrect herself from the dead and is in the process of transforming into a creature of pure power. Back before she was sealed away she was a mystery woman, no one knew a thing about her, but she was a minor noble for the kingdom so she was allowed to rule over a small country."  
  
"And what does this have to do with what is happening now?"  
  
"When she reaches full power in a few days there isn't a thing that the Scouts will be able to do about it. She will sweep over the planet and reduce it to such a primitive level that being a slave in her army will be the kindest thing a person could do. She will open wide a gate that will release Youma across the world and bring mankind to it's knees in a matter of days."  
Ranma tapped his finger on the edge of the throne's arm rest and glared at her, telling her mentally to get on with it.  
  
"Um..she also has a crush on Prince Endymoin, she found out who he was the last time she tried this and brainwashed him into working on her side for a short time. Once she's free she will be able to accomplish this again with but a thought. You need to keep her from doing this, his link to the power that is channeled through this castle will yours if he is turned to her side and would eventually drive you made through the link."  
  
"How about if the link with castle is broken?"  
  
"That would not be a good idea, Lord Ranma."   
  
"Why?"  
  
"The link is attached to a person's life force, to break it would require his death and Sailor Moon would not like that very much."  
  
"Alright, who is this Sailor Moon?"   
  
"She is the leader of the Scouts."  
  
"So why can't she and the Scouts protect this Endymoon guy?"  
  
"Endymoin sir, and they can't because there is a treaty with the Moon Kingdom and the Earth that forbids us from interfering in matters like this. You are not from the Earth Kingdom or the Moon Kingdom so you can warn them or even help them out in anyway you see fit."  
  
"What about my search for Akane?"  
  
"Our computers are way more advanced than the ones currently in use down on the planet, accessing the internet and finding any information on her would be child's play. If there is anything to find at all."  
  
"What would be the easiest way to warn them of this Beryl chick?"  
  
Terra1 winced. "Um...normally we could do it by linking to the Mercury Palm computer that has been active in recent years, but due to the treaty you will have to do it in person."  
Ranma leaned back and recalled a saying his father liked to use almost as much as his 'girl' comment; never look a gift horse in the mouth. This was a free home, free power, free clothing, and someplace to get a bit of privacy from the chaos in his life and a chance to improve himself without anyone interfering. It came with some responsibilities, but he would have time to grow into them. There was also no way in hell he would tell the old man about this place though, it would be sold to the highest bidder within a month, probably for a bowl of food and a binding contract that would strip the castle bare. "Alright, I agree."  
  
"YES!" Terra1 pumped her arm up and down a few times and danced around.  
  
"I need to find a place to practice when I get fully healed, is there a dojo here in the castle?"  
  
"No, but we can make one for you. All you have to do is show us some plans and it can be set up easily. As a matter of fact, I can find some plans by accessing the internet now that I think of it. Give us about twelve hours and we can have one set up for you."  
  
"Cool. Now I suppose I will go and warn those girls about that chick that is coming for them."  
  
"Um...if you want there are some things you should practice and master before you leave the castle, otherwise you will have to use the same way you got here."  
  
"What would that be?"  
  
"Just master your powers and learn how to access the magic that is now available to you."  
  
"Where do I start?"  
  
"Normally we would just have one of the teachers show you how to do it, but their all dead, so you will have to read the book on magic in the Library."  
  
"Got anything quicker?" Ranma asked hopefully.  
  
"I'm afraid not. Just let Terax show you the way and you can get started Lord Ranma."  
  
"Right, right, hopefully they are not to boring to ready."  
  
"I have no idea, they have never been entered into my memory. A safety measure created to keep certain people form illegally accessing the information."  
  
"Okay."  
  
**********  
  
Since he didn't have to go home anytime soon he figured it would be a good idea to stay here for a little while. Though now that he thought about it, he didn't know where Castle Terra was exactly. Terra1 informed him that he had a few days to practice before Beryl resurrected herself or something and he put it to good use. His new powers allowed his already quick healing abilities to fix him almost over night. He was left a bit sore, but for the most part he was able to move around without the cane. The books on magic, something he thought would be boring as hell turned out to be pretty interesting. They were like bound up martial arts scrolls, each page containing a bit of wisdom that was just amazing to read about, though there were sections that were just as bad as he thought they would be and he just skimmed through them.   
  
The teleportation was actually kind of easy once he learned how to collect the power and open a portal to his destination. All of his skills were also coming along nicely, he had a higher speed, strength, and endurance than ever before. Though these were all hampered by his aching body and slowed him down a little, with his magic it was easy enough to ignore it for now and only Ryoga or one of the old farts would even be able to give him a run for his money right now so it was safe enough to go back to Earth. Terra1 explained that he had a few hours to get to Jubaan and locate one of the Scouts. The big problem was that getting them to believe him would be a problem, they were naturally prejudiced against anyone that showed magical abilities other than them.   
  
Ranma kind of understood the thinking, but figured it wouldn't matter since he was only going to warn them of his intentions. The magic of this castle was still taking him time to get used to, but his favorite thing of all the castle's abilities was the food. All he had to do was sit down and state what he wanted and a few seconds later it would appear right in front of him in a little swirl of wind. He had spent hours sitting there reading and eating as much as he could, though much to his surprise he still found Kasumi's food to be of a higher quality than this. That was why he was eating an apple as he entered the teleportation room. Over the last couple of days he had used the castle's power to teleport from one section to another as he practiced. This particular room was a special area that let people teleport in even when they had never been there before. It would also help him find his way back once he left, all he had to do was lock onto the magical feel of the room and 'will' himself here.   
  
"I'm ready to go and warn those girls." Ranma said to Terax as she came into the room.  
  
"Do you know how to get to Jubaan?"  
  
"Sure, it should only take me about an hour or so to get there and however long to find them."  
  
"Good luck Lord Ranma, we are rooting for you."  
  
He nodded and ignored the name, they wouldn't stop calling him that now that he had accepted the position of Lord of the Castle. Closing his eyes he envisioned in his mind the spot below the bridge just down the block from the dojo and mentally shifted. When he opened them again he was right where he wanted to be and quick look around showed that no one had spotted him teleport in. He jumped his way back up to the road and headed fro Jubaan, sending his senses out as he ran faster than most cars did. To be safe he took to the roofs and took a straight path to the district.  
  
Him and the old man had come through Jubaan on that day that they went to see the Tendos. It felt like a life time ago to him, almost two years ago and it had been one constant battle from the first day and it had spent the next two years picking up speed. Now Akane was in danger and he had to find a way to get to her and that computer was helping him, for some reason he was almost convinced that these girls and Akane were in some way connected. I was just a gut feeling, but he was rarely wrong about these especially when it came to Akane. He could wake up in the morning and know for certain that it was going to be a good or bad day even before the old man tossed him out the window or Akane threw a bucket of water on him to wake him up.  
  
He had that same feeling now as he ran, this day was going to be a lot more than just a simple warning about an old enemy. Things were leading up to something and he wasn't in the best shape as it was. If only had a couple of weeks to prepare for a fight, one day of training just wasn't enough to really learn anything more than the basics. The only attack he had learned was to create rose and throw it at the enemy, sure he could charge with Ki and have it explode with enough force to blow a hole in the wall the was using for target practice, but it was rose for crying out loud. Some of this magic seemed to be just plain stupid to him, what kind of demented mind comes up with a rose as a weapon?  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...Maybe   
  
End Notes - I'm not sure where I want to go with this just yet, I never did come up with an ending for this and that'll make it a little harder to write up. The rolls mentioned up above are more of a suggestion right now, I'll be following it somewhat loosely and adding in some other things over time.   
  
* The earth symbol is a Wotan's Cross, this is a cross (more like a plus sign) in the middle of a circle and it stands for a kind of cosmic union symbol. The circle also stood for the earth horizon, with the four directions meeting at the center. It was also called the Sun Cross for the sun (cross) embraced by heaven (circle). The often repeated symbolism is that of a deity in the middle of a four-way heaven. 


End file.
